Week 21

14 days remaining in The Franchise regular season! Let's jump right into last week's results and what they mean going forward:

Commish became the first manager to record three shutouts in the same season when he rolled over Greg 9-0. This also puts Russ 11 wins away from clinching the regular season all-time wins record, with two weeks to go! For Greg, it only proved what I mentioned last week; his crazy run was the result of a padded schedule. He's still in sixth, but his lead has been sliced to just 4 games. Fortunately for him, the clock may run out before he can be caught, more on this later.

 Mark became the second team to clinch a playoff spot as he blew out Perk 7-2. Mark is now 7.5 games up on third place and looks to be locked into the second bye week spot, just his second bye week spot in 5 career playoff appearances. Perka was still able to gain ground on Thompson despite the loss, but is still 8.5 out of the playoffs. Perka has had a dissappointing second half, and has now lost 5 in a row.

In one of the biggest surprises of the week, John took down Dan 8-2, and pulled him out of third place for the first time in a long time. John now clings to a very small 2.5 game lead over Dan in fourth. This may seem like non-news, but the third spot is actually going to end up being pretty valuable this year. Of the three managers battling for #3 (John, Dan, Keeves), the two losers will end up having to play each other, leaing the winner to play whoever stumbles into the 6 seed. At this point the drop off between Keeves/John/Dan and Greg/Brad/Pflanz is enormous, so this tight race for the 3 seed is HUGE.

Some life from Brad this week! For the first time in 6 weeks Brad didn't take a loss, playing Andy to a 4-4 tie. It's not perfect, but he'll take it. Four games, that's all that separates Brad from his 4th career playoff appearance. Meanwhile Andy has played such a great spoiler role this year, it's more fun when he's in the race, I want his team to be fantasy relvant again, I'm buying stock in 2014 Musto!

The snoozer of the week actually may have made Bryan Bart fantasy relvant again. I laid into him at our fantasy football draft last night and all of a sudden he wants the playoffs! This season's biggest disappointment decided last night that he wanted to make a push for the playoffs, but is it too little too late? After the 7-1 defeat, Richie's team is 17 games out, however I went to make a spot start last week and realized my target had already been picked up....BY RICHIE. He's still making moves, and trying to keep it competitive?? Take notes, this is how you manage a last place team folks!!! Fantasy karma off the charts!

The final game was also a surprise, as Pflanz upended Keeves 7-3 in an upset special. Keeves really couldn't afford to lose this one, and has now dropped 5.5 games out of the 3 spot. He's obviously still safely in the playoff picture, but as I mentioned earlier, that 3 seed puts you in a far better position than 4 or 5. Pflanz is now poised to jump into the last playoff spot, trailing by just 4 games. He's doing what he always does and capitalizing on opportunities; this win was huge and he has managed to win 2 weeks in a row while his competitors have struggled.


Looking ahead to the final two weeks...

Russ (1st) vs. Bart (6.0 games out of the playoffs) - This game is becoming bigger than when it first appeared on the schedule. Russ is chasing the record books, and winning at least 1 category off Bart will put him in range of breaking his own 3 year old wins record. Bryan, on the other hand, wants to prove he still deserves a spot in this league next year. However, next week he will play Mark, and as hot as his team may be right now (24-14 in the last 4 weeks), I don't think he goes over .500 in the remaining weeks.

Mark (2nd) vs. Greg (6th) - This game means far more to Greg than it does for Mark. After the shutout, Greg desperately needs a bounceback win, but I don't think he gets it here. Mark has only lost once since week 11 and seems poised for another deep playoff run in 2013. Greg will have a chance to salvage when he plays Andy next week. His magic number right now is 16, but I think he'll be safe if he can take 8 categories from Mark and Andy.

Dan (4th) vs. Brad (4.0 games out of the playoffs) - Dan is battling for the 3 seed, Brad is keeping his playoff hopes alive! This has real MoW potential. Looking ahead, we see that John and Keeves face off in week 22, giving Dan a prime opportunity to clinch the 3 seed and an easier first round matchup, it all starts with this week, he's gotta stay in contention. Brad will have to keep up with Dan, but keep in mind that Greg is playing Mark, so as long as Brad keeps it close, I think he will be able to make up some ground for the playoffs.

John (3rd) vs. Pflanz (4.0 games out) - Here's an opportunity for Pflanz to really turn things around. He came up with the big win over a playoff team last week, can he do it again? Meanwhile John is looking to build up a bigger lead over Dan, because the week 22 matchup with Keeves is looming, and could end up being a round 1 playoff preview.

Keeves (5th) vs. Richie (out of it) - Speaking of opportunities, can Keeves get a big win over the league's worst team and jump into third? This would really mix things up going into the final week. Really looking forward to the week 22 matchups of Keeves-Johnny and Pflanz-Brad, both could have MAJOR playoff implications.

Irrelevant game of the week: Andy vs. Perka

BOTTOM LINE: Russ has #1 locked up, Mark essentially has #2 locked up, John and Dan are battling for #3, Keeves has an outside shot at #3 but is pretty much garaunteed #4 or #5. Greg, Brad, and Pflanz all have legit shots at #6, Bart has a long shot at #6, Perka has a very long shot at #6. Andy & Richie thanks for playing.

MY THOUGHTS: Looking closer at the schedules for the last two weeks, Pflanz and Brad have it tough, playing a top 4 team, then battling each other. Greg has it slightly easier facing Mark then Andy. Because Greg already has the 4 games lead, and the easier schedule, I think he will barely hang on to the last playoff spot (with Brad missing by .5 games)